This autumn a new winery will open its doors among the luxury shops, avant-garde theatres and loft residences of New York's SoHo
City Winery is New York's first 'private label winery' where members can vinify their own barrel of wine, managing its life from fermenter to barrel to bottle.
Included with membership are classes, winemaker dinners, and advice from staff winemaker David Lecomte. Annual fees range from US$5,000-10,000 depending on grape variety, vineyard, cooperage and so on, resulting in bottle costs of $25-40.
In a response to the booming American interest in wine, several such wineries have recently opened, most notably Crushpad in San Francisco, which now has over 2,000 winemaker-clients.
City Winery is unique because it will procure grapes from across the continent and South America, as well as from local vineyards, giving its members access to Oregon Pinot Noir, Napa Zinfandel, Finger Lakes Riesling or Chilean Malbec.
It may also source grapes from a new vineyard currently in development at the Staten Island Botanical Garden. The two-acre vineyard is dedicated to Italian grape varieties and should produce its first crop in 2012.
Vineyards are contracted to harvest by night and transport the chilled grapes in refrigerated trucks express to New York.
City winery will also incorporate a restaurant, a wine bar, multiple private event spaces, and a concert venue.
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